BAHAWALPUR: Three police officials, who are allegedly involved in the murder of lawyer Zeeshan Dhadhi and his nephew, have been suspended for alleged misconduct on the orders of Vehari DPO Muhammad Afzal.

According to police spokesperson, the suspended officials included Machiwal Police SHO Rai Sajid Hussain, and ASIs Ashraf and Junaid.

Though the PRO claimed that their suspension was due to their alleged misconduct, but Dawn learned that they were suspended due to their involvement in the alleged killing of lawyer Zeeshan Dhadhi and his nephew Husnain in an alleged staged encounter on the pretext that the deceased were drug peddlers.

According to lawyer’s mother Sufia Bibi, suspended SHO Hussain had a personal grudge against her son. She claimed that her son’s house was raided by the police and they allegedly opened fire to kill her son and his nephew.

The police also claimed to have recovered narcotics from the house. Later, on the complaint of the deceased’s mother, the Machiwal Police booked the three suspended officials along with 11 other unidentified persons for the killing.

The Machiwal Police had yet to arrest any of the accused cops, while complainant Sufia Bibi and the lawyer community of Bahawalpur, Vehari and Lodhran were demanding their immediate arrest. The three bars besides observing a strike for the arrest also demanded that the three police officials be booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

However, the PRO said that the police officials, after their suspension, were closed to the Vehari district police lines on the allegations of misconduct.

CONFERENCE: A two-day international conference on emerging trends in the field of physics, organised by the Islamia University (IUB)’s Institute of Physics, began at the Baghdad-ul-Jadid campus on Friday.

IUB Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Kamran, in his inaugural address, said that physics was of fundamental importance among scientific subjects and most of the world’s discoveries, inventions and scientific progress were due to physics. He stressed that Pakistani scientists should focus on research activities on emerging trends and innovations in physics so that the country could progress.

Thal University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Saeed Ahmed Buzdar gave a detailed lecture on the evolutionary stages of physics in the past and present, research and teaching, and future prospects. He said that physics was also giving far-reaching results in the fields of climate change and medicine.

According to a press release, the two-day conference was hosting domestic and foreign delegates who would present papers related to materials science, medical physics, material physics, nanotechnology, renewable energy and other modern fields.

RAID: A joint team of the Vehari Police, FBR officials and Excise and Taxation department’s officials claimed to have recovered several hundreds crates of allegedly smuggled cigarettes worth hundred of thousand of rupees on Friday during a raid at a private godown in the Peoples’ Colony of Vehari.

According to the officials, the smuggled cigarettes were supplied to retailers in different areas of the district. The godown owner fled from the scene and his case had been referred to the FBR for further legal action against him, the officials added.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2025